2019 CPS wk2
WK 2 - Tinkering As Method
Theme:
Tinkering As Method ⸜(* ॑꒳ ॑* )⸝
Context:
Tinker is to play with the materials at hand, to iterate quickly, to make without a specific goal in mind and keep your mind open to the opportunities that arise through the process. For this practice, I am really interested in exploring ideogram.
An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as pictograms.
All Chinese characters are logograms, but several different types can be identified, based on the manner in which they are formed or derived. There is a handful which derives from pictographs (象形; xiàngxíng) and a number which is ideographic (指事; zhǐshì) in origin, including compound ideographs (會意; huìyì). Chinese character, essentially each character or graph symbolises a single idea and, by extension, associated with that idea. The ideographic, in which atomic ideas are symbolized directly and linguistic structures only by ‘extension’.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2385377seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Method:
Based on this principle, I picked three Chinese characters and play with them, tried to trace the origin of the ideogram and make some innovation, like create some new symbols or characters. Make the Chinese characters transition toward new symbol, picture or concept
through rearranging, constructing or deconstructing the characters through creating a 2D mini animation. I used TVPaint to create 2D frame by frame animation.
The Chinese character I chose :
1. 囧
Jiong is a once obscure Chinese character meaning a "patterned window". Since 2008, it has become an internet phenomenon and widely used to express embarrassment and gloom, because of the character's resemblance to a sad facial expression.
2. 人
Ren means person.
3. 大
Da means big.
Response:
The definition of ideogram is often used to describe symbols of writing systems rather than object/concept. When I come up with rough ideas. I try to split the characters into smaller elements to understand the structure of characters or give them meanings. Try to create something new by rearranging and deconstructing. As a result, I create a 'new' character. Different from a big project that requires a long time to think before the start, I prefer to start without planning. It didn't take me a long time to come up with the idea, around 10 minutes. Gather ideas and arranged them randomly. May have unexpected results. I think this method is more suit for people who want to make a design for experiment or exploration instead of a big group project.